Jerome thought of all the good he’d be able to do if he made the deal.
“You really could do a lot of good with that money,” reaffirmed the lawyer offering him the contract.
With those additional billions Jerome would be able to implement his plans for climate control by reflecting solar radiation back into space, stop genetic entropy by cloning engineered species, medically manipulate the population into an addicted state of happiness, and eliminate any unhappy terrorists who’d try to stop him.
“Just to make sure you understand,” the lawyer continued, “after fifty years my company will acquire your soul, which you’ve admitted doesn’t materially matter to you anyway, and in exchange you will have enough resources to save your planet in any way you’ve a mind to do so.”
Some years later after a good deal of planet-saving had wrecked the planet, Jerome listened to his top scientists explain how they might be able to remove the orbiting sun-reflecting micromirrors they released earlier that year, but it would be more expensive than Jerome had expected.
He then asked them, “Hypothetically, if someone were fool enough to sell his soul to the devil to hire guys like you, is there another way out of the contract than the one you are now proposing and how much would that cost me?”
Denise offers the word “deal” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.


This gave me a laugh. How many great lines start with “hypothetically.” 😆
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“Hypothetically” is a good way to introduce irony. Thank you, Laura!
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Sadly, there is no way out of the deal with the devil. Thanks for great insight.
Blessings.
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Jerome does look like he isn’t going to get out of the deal on his own. Thank you, Michael!
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Brilliant!
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Thank you!
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Great Story, Frank, and a beautiful photo.
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Thank you, Dan!
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Frank,
Looks like he’s in a fix. And it’s not hypothetical at all!
pax,
dora
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He is in a fix. Thank you, Dora!
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“Hypothetically” is a powerful word.
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I am glad you liked that word. I added it in during a late revision of the story. Thank you, Romi!
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Excellent insightful work, Frank. Seems like we were inspired by similar ‘deals’ this week. 🙂
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As soon as I heard the prompt word “deal”, the devil came to mind. Thank you, Doug!
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Brings to mind a saying my mother would say to me, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Jerome is in a mighty pickle!
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He had good intentions, or so he thought until he carried some of them out. Thank you, Denise!
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Yup, he has nothing left to trade. It’s like your oops poem but with the man on the receiving end.
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It is like the oops poem, similar theme. Thank you, Rebecca!
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No way out for Jerome, then. Shame when his intentions were essentially good. This reminds me of ‘And the Salesman Came to Town’ by Ian Campbell.
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I haven’t read that story by Campbell, but it sounds like another of those “road to hell is paved with good intentions” tales like mine. Jerome’s intentions were good in his own eyes, but he didn’t know they were not good enough. Thank you, Chris!
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first of all, great photo. works well with post. also, good job. some do indeed make a deal with the evil one.
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Some do make such deals. Thank you!
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“Paging D. Webster! Is there a D. Webster in the house?”
fun Six/installment
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I haven’t read Benet’s story, but I think Jerome is going to need Daniel Webster. Thank you, Clark!
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Darn, I was hoping this would work out, he had such good intentions. A fun Six, nonetheless.
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Thank you!
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Just goes to show, we’re not smarter than G-d (’cause if there’s a devil, there has to be G-d somewhere, right?).
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Good point. If there’s a devil (which there is) then there has to be G-d, Who also is.
I liked your description of #1 son in your story who doesn’t write run on sentences but does talk in them.
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The devil was in the detail, a shame he didn’t give it a little more thought at the outset!
My Six!
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He missed a lot of details. Thank you, Keith!
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Oh Jerome, you are in trouble! 🙂
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He is in trouble. Thank you, Mark!
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Few days behind on reading blogs since I’m on vacation
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Enjoy your vacation. One needs to take a break every now and then. Blessings to you!
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TY
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